View Post [edit]
Poster: | Vermoontains | Date: | Jul 20, 2016 11:57am |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Days Between |
I think it is a great song and Bob and all did a nice job at this show. On the video it starts about 4:04 hours. To me the song is a paean to the deadheads whatever that may mean. I like the structure and the four seasons in the four stanzas. It is quite reflective, for good or ill.
Here is an article and the lyrics.
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/days.html
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Reade | Date: | Jul 20, 2016 6:49pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
This post was modified by Reade on 2016-07-21 01:49:21
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Vermoontains | Date: | Jul 20, 2016 7:36pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
Almost every last word in a verse could be repeated for effect but only the last ones are. So many beautiful phrases. You hear them once and know them forever.
A part of folks not liking it is it sounds dramatic or important and people don't want to be told things. And there is not much guitar for some, only at the end.
I saw Weir and Mayer on a Bravo show and out of the blue the guy asks Bob what Jerry song means the most to him now and he says this one. I think his bond with Jerry is felt still strong. And it shows. Bob did great on this.
( The best part of that show was Mayer talking about going to gay bars with the host in SF, Cohen maybe. I thought I would cringe but Mayer was quite funny.)
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Reade | Date: | Jul 20, 2016 9:02pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
I think with that tempo, and lack of guitar, just clicking through the four stanzas, they need to be careful not to turn it into a dirge. It's not supposed to be that. Although I can see Weir taking it there, consciously or otherwise, as I believe (along the lines you suggest of the strong bond) he's never gotten over Jerry's passing.
I had hopes Mayer's outro line would turn into something it didn't. Instead, for me, it just kind of sat there, a new age, spacey end punctuation.
Didn't Jerry put some guitar in the middle? It's been awhile since I've listened- always focused more on the lyrics, as many of the '93-'95 performances were of course so lacking.
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Vermoontains | Date: | Jul 21, 2016 12:23pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
In the beginning I think there was only a jam after the last verse, then late 94 a jam after the third verse too.
Here is one to add to coldrain's which were very good
https://archive.org/details/gd94-12-19.sbd.vernon.20712.sbeok.shnf
On the eulogy and Bob I saw this from bluedevil and it had the Hunter letter from a year after
https://archive.org/post/318384/jerry-eulogy-request
on Bob "In retrospect, I think Weir was hardest hit of the old crowd by your death. I take these things in my stride, though I admit to a rough patch here and there. But Bob took it right on the chin. Shock was written all over his face for a long time, for any with eyes to see."
and on the song "Just folk music and tremendous dreams. Yeah, we dreamed our way here. I trust it. So did you. Not so long ago we wrote a song about all that, and you sang it like a prayer. The Days Between. Last song we ever wrote."
like a prayer
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Reade | Date: | Jul 21, 2016 10:30pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
This post was modified by Reade on 2016-07-22 05:30:46
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Vermoontains | Date: | Jul 22, 2016 11:15am |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
The Hunter writings are plain and true.
The music seems driven by Vince or the keyboards and that lends to the dirge sound.
I heard this, from the rehearsals, and I love the sound of Garcia's voice, lilting. He basically tells Vince to play the music on it. Maybe that is why no big guitar until the end.
https://archive.org/details/gd93-02-10.rehearsal.Samaritano.17435.sbeok.shnf
here is a video that is pretty good too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcVWRuv1o6M
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Reade | Date: | Jul 22, 2016 11:44am |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
And of course the rehearsal version has always been sort of the go-to reading, for me at least. Feb. of '93 would have had them off the road for quite awhile generally speaking, presumably rested and relaxed (all things being relative), and working with strong material.
He was back playing with Grisman, busting out chestnuts like 'Whiskey in the Jar,' making the rounds of all his old girlfriends, and to me just in general consciously, joyously and very fondly hooking up his glorious past with his present.
Enter 'Days Between.'
The lyrics imo have always represented a deeply personal exchange, basically, between Jerry and Hunter. And as I was reminded from your link to Hunter's letter one year out from ground zero, the sentiments expressed grew out of that post-beatnik, pre-hippie world of the early sixties they shared. ('All there was was folk music and our dreams,' whew. That kinda stopped me in my tracks for a minute that day.)
Importantly to me, this span for all intents and purposes predates Jerry's relationships with the other band members. So to say the least, again, just a deeply Hunter-Jerry thing. So much so that I suggested around these parts a few years back that Weir and Lesh would be well-advised to just leave the fucker alone. Sacred shit. But what do I know?
The tune clearly speaks to Weir (I had no idea he cites it as his favorite Jerry number- that fits perfectly!) and he sings it from the one standpoint he has- his. And because of that particular view, being Jerry's wing-man for thirty years, it's a vehicle for him to express his tremendous loss. (More power to him there- perhaps a better strategy than painkillers and scotch.)
The dirge-like quality I was thinking applied mostly to Weir's orientation to the tune as discussed, and what sounded like overly sparse instrumental support from DeadCo. But what this back and forth has made me aware of is Jerry himself probably sank into dirge-land on some of those nights '93 - '95 when, strictly speaking, he probably shouldn't have been on a stage at all.
Such is the power of the material I guess! To push it out as a prayer and not a lament, you've got to be properly synched up with it from the get-go.
Reply [edit]
Poster: | Vermoontains | Date: | Jul 22, 2016 5:48pm |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
This post was modified by Vermoontains on 2016-07-23 00:48:40
Reply [edit]
Poster: | ColdRain108 | Date: | Jul 21, 2016 10:15am |
Forum: | GratefulDead | Subject: | Re: Days Between |
A nice one from my last show, Jerry's vocals are so strong. Fare Thee well indeed!
https://archive.org/details/gd1995-05-29.fob.schoeps.unknown.larson.34270.flac16
Here is one of the best of '93
https://archive.org/details/gd1993-08-22.mtx.hansokolow.98235.flac16
The last truly outrageous, can't believe my senses thing I saw the GD do was So Many Roads in December of '93. Jerry stood 20 feet tall on that stage and just crushed the audience. Not a dry eye in the house. My jaw was on the floor - and no chemical enhancement was at play.